Death of Vernaculars and Language Hegemony: An ethnography of the higher education sector in 21st century India

Higher Education Forum Volume 21 Page 201-221 published_at 2024-03
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Title ( eng )
Death of Vernaculars and Language Hegemony: An ethnography of the higher education sector in 21st century India
Creator
Kumaramkandath Rajeev
Source Title
Higher Education Forum
Volume 21
Start Page 201
End Page 221
Number of Pages 21
Journal Identifire
[PISSN] 2432-9614
[NCID] AA1187795X
Abstract
The paper examines how new age pedagogies and neoliberal policies consciously work towards “naturalizing” English language’s hegemony in institutions of Higher Education (IHE) in India. An ethnographic study the paper foregrounds the precarious positioning of non-English Indian languages vis-à-vis the pervading discourses of internationalization and education as job/skill oriented. Hegemony of English in the present is coupled with a restructuring of language departments as well as fleeting market demands for human capital. The paper also brings into question the role of the Internet and related technologies in reorganizing the linguistic dynamics of HE. Instead of democratizing, the Internet produces new monopolies in knowledge production, controls knowledge traffic from global North to South and further legitimizes the language hegemony. The paper argues that, in the last two decades, the neoliberal rupture has been leading HE institutions to a death of vernaculars within their physical, cultural and academic spaces.
Keywords
English language hegemony
HE in India
vernaculars
knowledge traffic
techno-globalisation
language departments
Language
eng
Resource Type departmental bulletin paper
Publisher
Research Institute for Higher Education, Hiroshima University
広島大学高等教育研究開発センター
Date of Issued 2024-03
Publish Type Version of Record
Access Rights open access